November

Just when you think things are calming down, something else gets thrown at you, (or your husband.) Steve just got called to be the Young Mens President at church. He's pretty excited about it though. He loves working with the young men. I'm still doing cub scouts and playing piano in RS. The kids are doing well in school. I'm sad to announce that Katie wants to become a cheerleader. Soccer is over and a couple of her best buds are cheerleaders, so she decided that's what she wants to do. Hey, who am I to say no? It's free anyway and they only cheer at school assemblies 4 times a year. But still, a cheerleader? And I thought I was raising her right.

Tagged

I guess I've been tagged. Thank you Jenni. (That was a sarcastic Thank you) Seven quirks or random things about me. Here it goes....
1. I have very vivid dreams. I woke myself up the other night from my scream. Another time I woke up because I kicked the wall. (I was fighting in my dream)
2. About every six months or so, I start thinking about wanting to start a business, even though I'm not ready. It's not the right time in my life. (I'm going through it right now.) I see an old cool building for sale and think, that would be great for....... I have a number of business plans. Oh, and I already owned a business which I hated, but learned a lot from. Don't ask why I want another one.
3. I can't eat just one cookie. NEVER. Okay, not never. If it doesn't taste good, I can hold back.
Is this over yet?
4. I bought a palm pilot. Thought it would be great. Has alarms and everything. You can even write notes and stuff with the stylus. Didn't last long. I went back to my real planner because I could write in it with pretty ink and it didn't run out of batteries. I have to be able to write without having to scroll down. And have you noticed that your handwritting on those things is terrible, no matter how hard you try?
5. I'm obsessed with books and paper. I love to read, but a blank book is wonderful. So many possibilities. And do you know how many things you can do with paper? Awesome! And of course I worship trees, because guess where paper comes from? (And trees are beautiful)
Almost done!!!
6. I enjoy burping. I hate holding them in. It's so nice just to let it go. My poor kids get to see (and hear) the real me. I try to refrain from burping in front of Steve, but accidents happen. I don't drink rootbeer in public for fear of this bad habit.
7. E-mail is fun and all, but I LOVE getting letters or packages in the mail. Makes my day! (Junk mail, not so much)
And I'm done.

We're Still Alive

Sorry it's been so long since my last post. I get really into blogging and then I don't care about it for awhile. Anyway, our life has been pretty busy. Here's our schedual.
Monday...recover from wild weekend. (More like lazy weekend. Nothing gets done, so Monday I get going again.)
Tuesday...Nathan has Speech and Katie has soccer practice
Wednesday.... I work at Artifacts for a couple of hours, Cubs Scouts after school.
Thursday......I have religion class, (Old Testement), Katie has piano, then soccer.
Friday..... I have watercolor class in the morning, Nathan has speech, and hopefully Steve and I get to go out.
Okay, so that doesn't seem like that much, but sometimes, it is.

Steve's brother Brandon and his family came to visit. They were here for a week or so. Their little baby Gage is soo cute. Everywhere I look there are babies or women getting ready to have a baby. Is that just me? or has anyone else noticed too? Then this last week my sister Melissa came to visit with her three little ones. They are lots of fun. I don't know how she does it though.

Steve can't hardly wait for ski season to start. He already got himself a new pair of skiis. In case you didn't know, I gave up on snowboarding and started skiing. I am so much more comfortable on skiis. Love it. Snowboarding is still way cool though. Too bad I sucked at it.

Stink'n House

Our backyard is a playground for wild animals it seems. We've been smelling a skunk so Steve went and bought a cage/trap. Late that night Steve goes out around the house to check on the trap and he see 2 adult racoons and 3 babies. That's in addition to the 2 skunks Steve saw earlier. He's also trying to shoo a random cat away because it keeps eating our bait. Steve did catch a skunk. Maybe the other one realized it's friend was gone and made like a baby and headed out. Moral of the story? Don't store dog food on your back porch. Especially when you don't have a dog to defend it. (It's Molly's dog food, Carla and Johns dog) The food is now in the garage.

Anyone looking for a pet?

New Member of the Family

After being on the waiting list for adoption for two years............(drum roll please) ......... we are still waiting. But look at the cute kitten we adopted Tuesday. His name is Max and we (the kids and I) love him. I'm not sure what Steve thinks.

The kids are back in school and enjoying it. Max keeps me company while they are gone.

(In case you didn't know, kittens are hard to get good pics of unless they are sleeping. )

Bear Lake Reunion

We were able to go to Idaho for our Waite family reunion. It was so much fun. We left Tuesday, went to Lagoon Wednesday and were at the Blue House that night. Katie rode all the scary rollercoasters and loved it. (That's my girl) And Nathan had fun on the kiddie rides. Although when he got splashed on Rattle Snake Rapids, he looked at us like "why did you let that happen?" We got off the ride and he promptly tried to strip down.
Being at the Lake without Nathan's track was a whole new experience. Not having to worry about him drowning if the water touched his neck was a big plus. He had so much fun. Chad rented jet skiis on Friday and it was awesome. I took Katie out on one and she asked how long I've been riding them. She had fun. She was singing, laughing or screaming the whole time. Steve took Nathan. Steve said he smiled and waved everytime he saw me and Katie riding around.
Back to real life. School starts next week. Is anyone else excited?

We're Home

Nathan and I are finally home. It is so great, wonderful, awesome. We got back late last night, just in time for Steve's birthday. The doc. said his airway looks great. They also found out the fevers were from his picc line. (Does everyone know what that is?) Anyway, they took that out and with his antibiodics he's been fever free. We promised to go to the ER if he got another fever. We also have to go back in two weeks for another scope. They want to make sure there's no scar tissue or anything that could block his airway.
One good thing about being away from home for 2 1/2 weeks is it makes you realize what a great family and life you have.

We're Back In

Sunday night at the hotel, Nate woke up coughing and gagging with a fever. So we went to the ER to see what was going on and they admitted him back into the hospital. They still don't know what's going on, but it's happened two more times, shaking, gagging fever. They give him some drugs and his fever goes down and he's back to normal. They did move the scope up to this morning and everything looks great. However, they are worried about the temp. spikes and are not comfortable sending him home yet. So who knows how long we will be here. I'm ready to break him out tomorrow. Anyway, they are doing some more tests to try to figure out what's wrong with him. Poor Nate.

We're Out

We were released from the Hospital today. We still have to stay around town until Wednesday, when Nate will have another scope to make sure his airway is still healing good. If it all looks good, we can go home of Thursday. Keep your fingers crossed.

Nathan

Nathan is disconnected from everything. Yeah! I haven't seen him this relaxed and comfortable for a while. We went to the playroom this morning and had some fun. I guess it wore him out.

This morning I'm standing by the elevators with my breakfast waiting to go up and I see the sign, use stairway in case of emergency. I think, I really need some excersize, so I ask these two workers (?) where the stairs are. "Stairs? No, we don't have stairs. These elevators will take you up." He pushes the button for me.

So I lunch time I'm heading off the floor and I see a hard hat worker and ask him where the stairs are. He shows me, not sure if I can use them, and the door opens. Thank you, I say, just need some excersize. Oh, sure.
I get my lunch and head up the stairs, 5 flights. Legs are burning. Man I need to get in shape. Get to the 5th floor and you have to have a security card to unlock the door. What's up with that? So I head back down stairs and take the elevators up. I tried, right?

Update

Nathan is doing so great. He's breathing very well, with a small amount of oxygen. He was really happy yesterday afternoon, and this morning for a little while before his angry mood swing hit again. It was worse yesterday. Kicking and thrashing. They said it's probably from coming off the morphin. Anyway, they give him some different drugs and he's calm again.
We are out of the ICU. Yea! I can eat our room, and the bathroom has it's own private shower!
FYI: I am so sick of watching Air Buddies.

One more day until the breathing tube comes out of Nate's nose/throat. He's pretty drugged up, but he wakes up just enough to watch a little bit of a movie here and there.
I'm tired from doing nothing all day, but this gives me a chance to do all the time wasting activities that I like, but feel guilty doing when I'm at home because there are better things I could be doing. Surfing the web, reading, playing Sudoku, and nodding off. I've already read Ella Enchanted, which was pretty good, and Fairest, with wasn't as good, but still okay. I started the Wheel of Time Series. It's a little more heavy reading than the previous. I started the Alchemist, but can't quit get into it yet. I really wish I had the harry potter series. Those always keep me glued to the book. They should have a book store in or close to the Hospital.
I miss Katie so much. She's having fun with the cousins though. Melissa and her kids are visiting mom and dad.

Before and After

We are in Cincinnati. We flew in Monday. Yesterday Nate had to have a voice test to see if his vocal chords were functioning right. As far as they could tell, they are fine. (He wasn't very cooperative.) After that we went to the Zoo. It was really fun and so beautiful. They have the botanical gardens throughout. There weren't any pandas though. Okay, a red panda, but it's not the same as the giant panda.

Anyway this morning we are headed to the hospital for the big surgery. We are all kind of on edge.

It's now 10:30pm. The surgery went very well. The Doc said Nathan did great and everything went smoothly. They cut out about an inch from his windpipe, and sewed it back together. The trach is out. After the doc. came and told us everything was great and the trach was out, Steve and I couldn't stop smiling at each other. Seven years. I still can't believe it's out. Woo Hoo!
Nathan is sedated for right now. He has a breathing tube up his nose and down his airway. They will take that out on Monday. After if comes out if things look good 24 hours later they will move him from the PICU to the regular floor. We can't eat in the rooms. How lame is that?
Anyway, I'm going to go to bed. I'll try to post pictures tomorrow.
We love you all and thanks for all the fasting and prayers for Nate.

What's Going On....

Happy Father's Day! (now that it's pretty much over.) Nothing real exciting is going on here. One week from tomorrow Steve, Nate and I are flying out to Ohio for Nate's surgery. Hopefully we come home without a trach. How great would that be? I can't really imagine it yet. Katie will be staying with the grandparents. They get to fight over her. Nate and I will be gone for 3 to 4 weeks. Hey, I don't have to cook dinner for a month! I will probably come home 10 pounds heavier from sitting around all the time. Plus the hospital has these awesome chocolate chip cookies. I'll have to find some stairs I can run up and down. (ha ha, probably won't happen.)

Carla and John's house is coming along good. They hope it will be done in August.

Torie and her kids were down for the weekend. I'm getting old.

So, in church the Relief Society asked if anyone could play the piano, even a little bit. So I thought, ya, I can play one handed today if I don't know the song well. No. They wanted someone to play every week. Anyway, I'm getting better, but today was pretty terrible. I wanted to start banging my head on the piano but I didn't think that would be very reverent, not that my playing was. At least the lessen went over and I only had to play one verse of the last song.
And that is what's going on in my life.

REAPER

Okay, new favorite show.... Reaper on the CW. You have to start it from the beginning, but the first episodes are not on the CW site. So go to You Tube and type in Reaper Pilot. Love it. Funny stupid. Thank you Lacey for introducing me. Haven't found something I love this much since Buffy. (nothing like Buffy btw)

Ten Year Anniversary

For our 10 year anniversary, Steve surprised me and took me to Ouray for a three day weekend. It was so much fun! We took off Friday morning and came home Sunday night. John and Carla watched the kids. We went hiking, shopping and swimming in the hot springs. It was so relaxing. I have such a great husband. I guess I'll keep him.

This last weekend I was able to go to Las Vegas with my sisters and mom. It was a lot of fun! We stayed at the Luxor Hotel and Casino. We shopped, we ate, we talked. Is there any better way to spend a weekend? Steve was so awesome to take care of the kids while I vacationed. And Aunt Cathy was a life saver for watching them after school. I am really thankful for all the love and support I get.

New Car

Okay, I've never had a brand new, never been owned car before. This is so fun. Oh ya, I can't call it a car... a jeep. So Saturday Steve was driving home from a job and had to flip a uey (how would that be spelled?) because he saw this jeep. He test drove it, after the soccer game I test drove it, and we almost bought it, but just couldn't see having that payment.

Yesterday on my way home from Albuquerque the engine light came on my jeep and I kind of freaked out. Steve freaked out because I go back and forth to Alb all the time and was worried about me and nate being stranded. So today we decided a new car with a lifetime warrenty on the engine and trans and something another was a pretty good deal. Some special Jeep is having right now. It was so fun driving it home! Mine all mine. And Steve's, I guess. JK

Is that a sweet color or what?

Untitled

Nate and I are getting ready to go to Crapaquerque tomorrow for an ear appointment. Nobody knows what happened to his other ear doctor, so now we have to go and meet a different one. Is anyone else sick of doctors as much as I am?

Well, I didn't post this before because it was too sad, but alas, I must. Charlie (our wonderful rottie) died a couple of weeks ago. He was in a lot of pain and could hardly eat, so we had to put him down. I know I complained about that dang dog alot, but I sure miss him. It was nice having someone happy to see you when you got home even if he knocked you down and stepped on your feet. I'll miss his little floppy ears. He was a great dog and we will miss him.

Update

Nathan's surgery is schedualed for June 25.
Today we got to go and help Brian and Rena move, again. They are moving to Aztec. Then me and the kids came home for Katie's soccer game. She is getting so good. Nathan likes watching the cars more than watching his sister. Anyway, that's what's going on in our life.

Here's the Skinny

Okay, Nate and I just got back from Ohio today. The doc scoped his throat, and the verdict is...... his throat went back to the way it was before the surgery in January. So, he will have to undergo another major surgery. They will cut out the part of his airway that is too small, sew everything back up and take the trach out while they are at it. They have to put a breathing tube from his nose down his airway for the first week. So he won't fight it (he is a fighter) he will be sudated for that time. After that, a couple of weeks in the hospital. So 3 weeks at least, maybe a month. The surgery will be done maybe a month from now. Hopefully sometime in May.

We just got back from MOAB Saturday night. It was fun. Yes, I actually enjoyed it. Thursday we went on the Kane Creek trail, which is a little scary and long. After about 4 hours I was ready to be done with that one. The hot tub that night made it all better. I told myself I only had to go on the trails one day. Steve had other plans. So Friday we went on a trail no one had ever been on and it was fun. (Did I just write that?) There were even some whoop-dee-doos. I road a four-wheeler for a hour or so and the weather was nice. Just a good day. Saturday morning we took the kids to an Easter Egg hunt. Then Steve took us shopping for a little while. We had lunch and split up. Katie and I finished our day shopping while Steve and Nate played. (I'm not really sure what they did.) Then it was time to go home. So, apprently this is the only picture I took. Someone was video-camering the whole time, so we have some footage, just no pics. Sorry Lisa, but isn't this a pretty dead tree?

Don't Buy Stuff You Can't Afford

Okay, i found this skit online and had to laugh. Check it out. SNL

Steve is working so hard on my "Art Studio" aka office, for me. I am so excited about it. The flooring is in, the cabinets are in and now we just need the counter tops. Then I can haul all of my junk into the room. But once my junk is in there, it will be junk no more, for it will be organized and be concidered "creativity supplies". Okay, I'm a little lame. But that's okay, because my family still loves me.

We are finally home, again. Cincinnati is still cold. Nathan is doing good, but the doctor didn't really get the results he was hoping for. Nate's throat opening is larger, but not as large as the doc would like. We will go back in a month and see if anything has changed. We will then learn what the next step will be.
One good thing about going is, we got to go to PA and visit Bonnie and Paula's families. It was pretty fun. Steve even got to do some plumbing at Bonnie's and Paula's to keep his skills up to par. I have some pretty cute nephews and nieces. I also learned that Abbie hates spinich in her brownies. (Can you blame her?) Nice try Paula. At least the little boys can't tell the difference. We had lots of fun.

Katie and I went to an art gallery for it's opening exhibit last night. It was pretty fun. She likes to look at the art with me. It didn't hurt that her friend Emryk was there either. It's the coolest place. It is an old lumber store downtown that they converted into art studios and a small gallery. I think there are 8 artist who rent spaces. The spaces are mostly open so you can see what the artist is working on. That's where I take my calligraphy classes. I get to work for a couple hours a week to pay for my classes. I'm pretty excited. It's just fun being there. It makes me want to create something.

Why is it that I always end up thinking about starting a business? I already owned one and hated it. Granted, it wasn't the kind of business I was really interested in. So just for fun today I went and saw a commercial property for sale that I have always loved. It's a old house with hardwood floors, a cool stairway and a patio outside. It's way cute. Why do I tease myself? I know I can't have it. I was thinking, if I could just buy it and rent it out until my kids are grown, then I can put my wonderful idea of a business in there. Problem. No moola. Anyway, I'm so thankful for my husband who humors me (he did do his "I'm annoyed" laugh when I told him I was going to go see it), but then he told me the questions I should ask and to really look at it, and don't be emotional about it. Well duh. It's soo cute! Very emotional. But, I did notice some of the painting was done poorly and the carpet upstairs was poofy.

Well, back to real life. My laundry is calling my name.

SHARK ATTACK!!!!

Okay, I'm bored. Nothing is going on here. Oh, I know... I went and saw 27 Dresses. LOVED it. That's about as exciting as my life is right now.

Home again, Home again, Jiggity Jig

At last, we are home. We found out today we get to go back on Feb. 11 for them to take the stint out of nate's throat. It's happening really fast. I'm excited. Is the trach really going to come out this time? Only time will tell.

Okay, now for the fun part of the trip. We were able to go to Cathage, IL and Nauvoo. It was really neat to see all that church history. But why do we always end up going to these places when it's freezing outside? Anyway, here's some pics.

Nathan

Here's a shot of Nate. He's really not happy to be here, but we found a fun game in the Play Room that got him laughing. Grandma Carla and Uncle Brandon came to visit him too. The plan is to get out tomorrow after the docs change his trach. Yippy!

A Dream Come True

Yesterday I was able to go to the biggest scrapbook store I have ever seen. It was awsome! We need one in Albuquerque.

Nate's Surgery

The surgery went very well. We will come back in 6 weeks to take the stint out of his throat. He's comfortable watching Hercules. Steve stayed the night with him last night. I came this morning so Steve could go get some sleep at the hotel. Katie is nice to have around. She's always happy. This morning she woke me up. I told her I wasn't ready to get out of bed and she said, "Well, Daddy's ready to get some sleep." She's too smart. Steve gave her ten dollars and she's excited to go shopping.

We are headed back to Ohio. One more day to get ready. Aunt Cathy bought us some fun new toys to keep us occupied on the 23 hour trip. I will let you know how the surgery goes as soon as I know, (and after I call my mom).